Blind Leading the Blind
by Zepphyra.Snow.Storm
Summary: BEFORE YOU READ THIS FIC, GO TO MY PROFILE AND READ THE LOVE LETTER. This is the sequel to that, and you have to read The Love Letter first. Don't worry, it's fairly short. It seems bad, but just bust through it t get to this happier fic. Warnings: they're at the beginning of each chapter. Don't like, don't read. Oh, and cover image isn't mine.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys! This is the sequel the _The Love Letter._ I suggest you read that first before you read this, or you'll be pretty confused. Oh, and, if it's tough for you to continue reading after certain points, just do it. It's not as bad as it seems. Although, you'll only know that once you read this, the sequel :)**

~x~x~x~x~

_**SUMMARY:**_** _After waking up the hospital, Sakura begins on a long road of mental rehabilitation. But to her surprise, Neji is joining her on this journey. He hasn't been taking Hinata's death very well, and he feels responsible. Through group therapy, outings, and dark, terrifying nights, they develop a strong bond that just might blossom into love.  
_**

~x~x~x~x~

**Anyhow. For those who don't know, I publish at my own pace. This is the 4th fic I am currently working on. I am also planning to begin (or re-start, whatever works) an original work. I'll post that elsewhere but if you're interested just PM me! Ahh. But, the point is, I'm doing a lot of things right now. Please check my profile for furtherr information about things in general. :)**

**There are other pairings, and at first there's no real romance between Sakura and Neji. But that's the point. _They fall in love. _There are also a few OC's. Maybe. I dunno yet.**

**_ALSO. _Lots of angst. Lots and lots of angst and PTSD. I'll put warnings for everything at the beginning of each chapter.**

**WARNINGS: implied self-harm in this chapter**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

The first time that Sakura became aware she was in a hospital, she was still slipping in and out of consciousness. Her mind was swimming in outer space, a void somewhere just beyond clarity. Time marched on. She was vaguely aware of this fact, which most likely aided her cognitive ability when she truly awoke for the first time. Her eyes remained closed, yet she still gradually became aware of her surroundings. She deduced that she was restrained somehow, as she had limited, if any, mobility in her arms and legs. She wasn't too keen on moving her arms, anyhow, since they were attached to IVs. There was that dull, tingling pain in her arms, indicating the presence of the needles. The only thing that she couldn't figure out here was why she was in the hospital in the first place.

Tentatively, the pinkette opened up her eyes. That is to say, she forced her eyelids open. It felt as though she had been sleeping for days. Her eyelids were stiff and crusty, and her blurred vision was gradually clearing up. On Sakura's side of the room, there was a window. Through the two stiff, thick curtains she could tell that it was nighttime still. Her parents had pulled up chairs and were sleeping restlessly. She thought about speaking, but suddenly she was frightened of how her voice would sound to her. How long had it been since she'd last spoken? How long had she even been in this place? What if she'd just woken up from a coma? Fear began to overtake her rationale as question after question appeared and swirled around in the darkness of her mind. She still didn't know why they had restrained her. Had she done something wrong? Why couldn't she remember?

No. She had to remain calm. She was a medical student, after all, and in the technical sense she knew a lot about her current situation. Sakura closed her eyes once more. Perhaps when she woke up again, it would be daytime, and she would encounter someone that knew more of her current situation than she did.

And so it was, the second time she awoke, a nurse was in the bedroom, monitoring her vitals and taking notes. Sakura blinked, and attempted to speak, but nothing came out. When she gasped in surprise the nurse finally noticed.

"Oh! She's awake!" He exclaimed. "Just let me go and get the doctor."

Finally someone would be able to shed some light on this situation.

It really wasn't long before an important looking older woman joined Sakura. Her parents trailed after her worriedly, murmuring softly to themselves. Sakura hadn't even notices that they'd left the room.

"Sakura, I am your doctor, Tsunade." Sakura felt a rush of relief that she was receiving her teacher as her doctor. "Do you remember who your parents are?"

_Ahh. _Sakura thought blandly. _The standard questioning._

But when Sakura opened up her mouth in an attempt to speak, once again nothing came out. She was quite perturbed by this, and her troubled expression did not go unnoticed by Tsunade.

"It's alright." The blonde said. "We'll see about your speech in a moment. You seem to be fairly cognizant, so we'll just be asking you yes and no questions. Now, answer by nodding or shaking your head if you remember who your parents are."

Sakura nodded. They were standing right there, staring at her with poorly concealed fright.

"Good." Tsunade nodded. "I can see your line of sight, so we'll just go to the next question. Do you know what day it is today?"

Sakura shook her head no. After all, she couldn't know something like that at this point.

"Do you know who the Hokage is?"

Sakura nodded.

"Is it someone that you could point out to me if I showed you a couple of pictures?"

Sakura nodded again.

"Alright," Tsunade shuffled through some files, getting out a paper with all of the Hokages on it. She placed it by Sakura's restrained right hand, saying, "Pick one."

Sakura pointed to Tsunade's picture. The woman nodded. "Good, good. Now if you can, pick our previous Hokage."

Sakura did so, but her patience was wearing thin. This was becoming tedious. Tsunade laughed, noticing her annoyance.

"Almost done. What's the last thing you remember? I will remove your restraints and you can write it down here." Tsunade said, indicating a notebook she was holding.

The last thing Sakura remembered was Sunday night, after the funeral. She had gone home during a thunderstorm, after discussing with Neji the contents of Hinata's suicide note. He had also told her to show it to Naruto, as well as another note that was for him alone. Then Sakura pretty much drank herself to sleep.

Tsunade looked the note over a couple of times and sighed. "As I thought," she began. "You have a slight memory lapse, and this puts it about a day before the… Erm, events took place." At Sakura's questioning expression, Tsunade shook her head. "That's enough for now. We'll talk more tomorrow. But, for now, I'd like you to try and stand up for me."

Sakura did so, slowly and carefully, but without issue. Tsunade nodded in approval.

"Good, good. That's all we'll do for today. I'll be back tomorrow to check on your progress. Your parents may remain until visiting hours end." Tsunade smiled. "Tomorrow I'll be coming with all the class work you've missed, so you can look forward to that!" With that she disappeared through the white doors of the private room.

Sakura sighed, glancing over at her troubled parents. They were sitting over in the chairs provided for them, whispering worriedly amongst themselves. It irked the pinkette endlessly, but what could she do? Glare at them? Because that would _definitely_ help. They were just worried about her… But it was irritating. They acted as though she still slept. She could hear, and otherwise function, just her speech… _Well, _she assumed, _it's probably just from the shock of… whatever happened._

She suddenly wondered if any of her friends knew about her, and if they had come to visit. She didn't want them to worry, since she was for all intents and purposes just fine. Her mind strayed to Naruto. He knew Tsunade very well. She'd ask her teacher if the bouncy blonde had stopped by at all.

It was all still a shock to Sakura. Not only the fact that one of her good friends was dead, but that Naruto of all people had slept with her. He wasn't the type to just do things like that, even intoxicated. No, she couldn't believe it. Well, okay, she believed it, but… _It's still totally unbelievable… I mean, I thought Naruto preferred men…_

_Well,_ she doubled back on that thought, _to _prefer_ a gender isn't to be straight or gay, so… I guess… what happened…_

She didn't want to think what happened was in the bounds of Naruto's conscience. It wasn't, but it was within the perimeter of his sexuality. So it was therefore… totally possible?

Was she really trying to rationalize his actions? But that meant that she blamed him to an extent.

_Of course I blame him. Damn it. I blame him for putting himself out there like that. It was consensual but Naruto never should have come onto Hinata. He already has someone… I can't imagine… I wonder if he knows yet…_

_Ugh. _Just the thought of Naruto's boyfriend (or ex-boyfriend, Sakura considered, depending on the current situation) made her shudder. She hoped that he would let Sakura try to comfort him some, but at the same time she was pretty sure she wasn't going to get anywhere with the aloof man.

Sakura sighed heavily and closed her eyes, a quiet groan escaping her lips. She honestly didn't know what to think of anything anymore.

* * *

It was strange. Nobody had come to visit Sakura.

"Why?" Sakura wrote on the notepad she was using to communicate.

Tsunade shook her head thoughtfully, handing the pinkette a pile of school work. "We need to slowly recover your memory of the last few days before we expose you to people who are already aware of the situation. But you understand, right? Think about it as though you were the doctor."

Sakura nodded, chewing on the pencil eraser. "So tell me," she scrawled quickly, "what exactly _did_ happen?"

"I don't think you're quite ready…"

Sakura sighed in exasperation, and wrote, "Look, I am completely coherent. The only thing wrong with me right now is my speech—or lack thereof. I'm only going to be in here for a few more days so I suggest you stop coddling me."

Tsunade's eyes widened slightly at the written outburst. But, she laid her hand on Sakura's. "I'll bring in a psychologist. We'll talk later today. In the meantime I have other patients to tend to, but we'll tell you everything this afternoon."

Sakura nodded, taking a deep breath. Now, all she could do was wait.

But suddenly, there was loud commotion in the hallway. People were yelling. It sounded like a struggle. Sakura quickly got up grabbing her two IV poles, and scampered quietly to the door. The door had a window, thankfully.

One distressed voice rose above all the others. She knew who it was before she even saw him. Terrified lavender eyes flashed brightly through silken brown strands of hair, and their eyes met for a brief moment. Sakura's breath caught in her throat. It felt like an eternity. She was seeing something Neji would clearly never want her—or anyone else for that matter—to see. There was blood, lots of it, but it was mostly dry now. It was all over him, and Sakura couldn't tell where the wound was in the brief moment she had a clear view of him. It had been cauterized obviously, but where was it…? Sudden understanding of the situation came to her, though, when doctors and nurses descended upon Neji like a murder of crows. They remained like that for a while, struggling overtop Neji's body. So it seemed, but after barely a minute they removed themselves from Neji's personal space, revealing his restrained body upon a gurney. One of the doctors took out a syringe, and Sakura turned away. She couldn't continue watching this.

Back at her bed, Sakura carefully replaced the poles where they had been previously. She sat down and sighed. She wondered if this was affecting Neji as much as she thought. Hinata, that is. She wondered how he felt… Why he would go as far as to injure himself… Or, heaven forbid, had he tried to commit suicide?

_No, no way. _Sakura rationalized. _Neji is very intelligent. He would actually plan out a less painful and less drawn out suicide than that…_

_These thoughts… What's with me? How morbid._

Pinning these thoughts as inappropriate, she flipped on the TV and hoped it would distract her.

It didn't.

But… it kept her occupied. She continued flipping channels until her lunch was brought in for her. It was then, when she was nearly half finished with the mediocre hospital food, that Tsunade walked in, another man—a giant—looming behind her.

What surprised Sakura was that behind that massive man, was Kakashi Hatake, a detective with the Konoha police department. She wasn't panicking because she knew this man well. But his presence made her uneasy. She wondered what could have happened that would warrant his appearance.

"Sakura, this is Dr. Choza Akimichi." Tsunade said, stepping to the side as the large man ambled forward.

Sakura had almost not recognized Choji's father, she hadn't seen him in so long. Grabbing the psychologist's extended hand, she returned his large, warm smile in kind.

"You've grown up quite a bit since I last saw you, young lady." Dr. Akimichi rumbled fondly.

Sakura's smile grew wider. She couldn't say anything back, and she felt somewhat awkward about that.

"Sakura," The pinkette returned her attention to Tsunade. "You know Kakashi. He's going to be sitting in here taking notes while we try and get you to recall the events."

Sakura nodded as Dr. Akimichi added, "If you feel uncomfortable or want to stop, just write that down or gesticulate in a way we would understand that you want to stop. None of use expect you to get your entire memory back in one day. We still have some time before you are discharged, so there is no pressure on you, okay?"

Now Sakura remembered why she always like Choji's dad so much. He was so warm and always had a way of making people feel better.

Kakashi had moved to lean against a wall on the opposite side or the room. He had a clipboard and seemed ready to write something down. Dr. Akimichi and Tsunade sat down in chairs next to Sakura's bed.

Dr. Akimichi leaned back into the chair and folded his hands over his large stomach. He took a deep breath. "Alright. Let's begin."

* * *

**Ahh, this was a short chapter... But I didn't want to write too much, ya know? I want the chapters to flow together, within the chapters and without.**

**That aside, please review! I won't respond to any flames. Okay? Constructive criticism is welcomed!**


	2. TEMP HIATUS

**Hey guys! I'm sorry if you thought this was the new chapter! I really am! Okay I mean I know it usually takes me a while to get chapters out, nothing new there, yeah? But this time shit's actually going down, not just me struggling to keep up with writing 10 different fics at the same time. One, college kept me busy, and two, my mind apparently decided to give college and I a big fuck you, and go into break down mode. Like, a couple months into college. When I thought I was fine. See, I have depression and anxiety. But I had been going unmedicated and had only been seeing a counselor (before college started) to deal with stress, migraine prevention and all that. Apparently I done wrong. I shoulda been on medication. I shoulda been seeing someone. Ah, well, point is, I basically shut down completely and wouldn't even come out of my room for classes. I came out occasionally when my food supply was depleted and when I felt that a shower may be in order. I ended up withdrawing for "medical reasons." It'll all work out in the end, and I'm much better than I was at that point. I'll go back in the fall when I actually have some meds. I am just having a lot of anxiety. Depression, I know and understand how to handle, so although the physical symptoms bother me, I can get over all this. Anxiety, not so much. Before, my anxiety manifested in different ways than it is now. And it fucking sucks.**

**THE FUCKING POINT IS. I've been having some major personal problems. There has just been zero motivation, plus the fact I haven't been able to concentrate for shit and I've been having lots and lots of memory lapses. SO GUESS WHAT. This shit is getting put on a temporary hiatus for an indefinite amount of time. HOWEVER. DO NOT FRET. For I will begin working on my fics again starting tomorrow. It's just that I now have these bouts of depression that really keep me from being productive, or just make me really sluggish, so I just don't know how long it will take to get the next chapter out. Things have been really crazy, ya know, it's the Christmas season and all that so it's been difficult to find time to call a psychiatrist. But I'm planning to Monday since my mom keeps putting it off XP Not that she means to. I think I ruined her Christmas. So I guess it works.**

**I'm totally ranting now, and you're probably not even reading all this. But that's okay, since I'm actually done.**

**Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays lovelies~**


End file.
